SBI waives average monthly charges

• Country’s largest lender State Bank of India has opted to waive maintenance of Average Monthly Balance (AMB) for all Savings Bank Accounts.
• This initiative will naturally bring a boost on the efforts to promote Financial Inclusion in the country. The charges on maintaining AMB are now waived off on all 44.51 crore SBI savings bank accounts.
• At present, SBI Savings Bank customers’ are to maintain AMB of ₹3000, ₹2000 and ₹1000 in Metro, Semi Urban and Rural areas respectively. Bank used to levy a penalty of ₹5 to ₹15 + taxes on non-maintenance of AMB.
• Keeping in mind ‘Customers First’ approach, the bank has also waived of SMS charges. This in turn brings significant relief to all the customer of the bank. Also the interest rate on SB Account has been brought down to a flat 3 % p.a. for all buckets.
• The Chairman of SBI says that this announcement will bring in more smiles and delight to our valuable customers. Waiving AMB is SBI’s yet another initiative to provide customers a more convenience and elated banking experience.

History:

1. State Bank of India (SBI) is the largest commercial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, customers and employees. It is also the largest mortgage lender in the country.
2. As on December 31, 2019, the bank holds a deposit base of over Rs. 31 lakh crore with CASA ratio of little more than 44% and advances of nearly Rs. 23 lakh crore.
3. Also SBI commands 34% market share home loans and 34.86% in auto loans segment.
4. The Bank has the largest network of 21,959 branches in India with an ATM / CDM network of over 58,500.
5. Further, the number of customers using internet banking facility are 70 million and mobile banking services stand more than 16 million. Downloads for YONO – an integrated digital and lifestyle platform by SBI – is over 41 million with 4.5 million logins per day. On social media platforms, SBI has the highest number of followers on Facebook and Twitter amongst all banks worldwide.

Note:

• SBI also waived SMS charges levied on quarterly basis
• Currently, SBI savings bank customers currently need to maintain average monthly balance of ₹3000 in metros